Imagine you have an ice cream cone. We’ll say chocolate chip cookie dough because you have some cash to burn. Thrifty’s gave you a scoop that is loaded with cookie dough and for a brief moment, the world is right. Your friend, Pedro Baez, stops by and asks to try your ice cream. You feel uneasy. “But why Pedro? You dropped my last ice cream cone.” Reluctantly, and with the “I just drove over a bump too fast” sensation in your stomach, you hand him the ice cream cone. He takes a bite and is handing it back to you. Just as it is about to pass back over to you, Baez drops your ice cream. “I fucking knew better,” you tell yourself. You knew better because Pedro Baez is the fucking worst.

It took two pitches for Baez to muck this up. Look at the location of pitch number 2:

Now look at Curtis Granderson’s zone profile for the season:

I’ll take, “All The Locations You Should Avoid When Pitching To Granderson,” Alex.

One has to wonder why Roberts decided to go with an awfully predictable Baez instead of Jansen. Well, we know why. It was the ol’ “Don’t burn your closer on a road game in a non-save situation” situation, duh! Don’t worry, it’s not supposed to make sense.

We can continue to lament over Baez, because it’s fun and easy. Or we can continue to scratch our heads over Roberts’s in-game management, but we won’t get far. Either way, both options neglect to focus on the maddeningly weak offense. Scoring four runs in the ninth to tie the game is a way to win a game, but it probably is not the best way to do it.

The Dodgers had multiple opportunities to take control of this game. In the top of the 3rd, with bases loaded and one out, Seager hit into an inning-ending double play.With men on the corners and one out in the top of the 4th, Pederson struck out swinging and Puig hit into a fielder’s choice in the next at-bat. The next inning, with two on and two out, Turner hit into a fielder’s choice.

The Dodgers remain 4.5 games behind the Giants. Kenta Maeda will toe the rubber against Noah Syndergaard. The last time Maeda faced Thor he gave up two dingers to the son of Asgard. Game time is at 4:15 PST.